Hi friends,
I’ve made a new reed for my concert pitch. Perfect. But the g in the 2nd octave is really flat, about 30 cents. Everthing else is perfect: nice clear sound, A @ lower octave at 440 Hz, high a at 880. High b is fine, bottom d + bottom e fine, high e a bit flat, about 10 to 20 Cents, needs a bit more pressure and is good then.
I have an original chanter reed in my b-Set, also the same matter: g high octave is a bit flat everthing else good.
What an I do?
Hello Christian,
always difficult to be exact but I suggest there is something not correct about your reed recipe. So, I assume that you have asked the maker of your chanter for a good design but I’ll try a couple of suggestions:
Firstly for a flat top G cure you can unwind the binding and push the staple further into the head, say 1mm, and see if this sharpens the upper octave G. It is possible that it will sharpen the A and B as well… if that is the case you might need to look at the aperture of the staple eye or use a narrower staple.
Head width may influence the octaving accuracy as well as ‘Reed Head Speed’ ( the pitch of the note given by the reed when air is drawn through it by sucking ) as in too much or not enough scraping.
There are a lot of variables.
The thought that came to me overnight;
This ‘Flat top G’ syndrome appears to occur on Concert Pitch chanters that are , or are modeled on , chanters made before the War. This appears to be due to the change in the international pitch standard. From 1939 the agreed value for A is 440hz. but for most ( or all ?) of the 19th century and up until 1939 a standard figure of A 452.5 hz. existed in English speaking countries. These older style chanters are easier to reed if allowed to play about a quarter tone sharp of 440hz.
Wide bore Concert Pitch is not my thing but there are reedmakers who have developed recipes to aleviate this problem so I feel sure someone here will give good advice .
Good luck,
Geoff.
I had similar problem with a chanter, but it wasn’t limited to the hi G. A and B were also flat. I was using hobby tubing for the staples. When I started rolling my own staples, no more problem.
I concur, insert staple further into the head . Place reed upright with the head faceing down on an anvil and hit the staple with a heavy lump hammer. Another method and probably a better one is as Mr Woof says, undo the binding and gently push in staple 1mm .
RORY